It is all about fun , satisfaction in a job well done , and the love of the car in question .
I bought my 1957 219 27 years ago , in 1982 , when I was a pimply faced young man and this was the first car I'd bought with my own money , of which I didn't have a lot : pretty much the equivalent of a young person now buying a 190E .
I did a 'mild' restoration then : new tyres , exhaust , brake overhaul and a few cosmetics on what was basically a fairly sound car in a condition comparable to most W201 or W124 cars today - only at that time there were perhaps 200 of ALL Ponton models left in the UK and no more than four or five W105's - so we are talking about a pretty rare car , even back in the early 80's I got used to people coming up and asking questions about it , finding a crowd huddled around it on my return or offers to buy tucked under the wiper in a note .
Of course , in the 1950's and 1960's Mercedes were not nearly as common in this country as they are today , partly due to slow restart of production after the war , partly due to residual anti-German sentiments back then and partly because back then the cars were , in real terms , MUCH more expensive than they are today - my 219 in 1957 had a list price of approx £2200 : a sum which would have bought a substantial house anywhere in the UK at that time and way more than a Jaguar or Rover . Even in 1964 , my dad's entry level 190 Fintail was £1800-odds ( I still have the invoice somewhere ) - a year or so earlier he had bought the house I grew up in for a similar amount of money , we sold the house many years ago but it recently changed hands for in excess of £400,000 .
Even so , you can today buy a car for a few hundred that someone previously might have paid many tens of thousands for . It is highly improbable that spending loads of cash on a restoration would ever restore such a car to the same monetary value - unless it was of some singular historic importance - like finding Eugen Bohringer's 300SE or Stirling Moss's 300SLR - so we do it for some other reason .
In my case , my car which I have so far owned for some 27 years , and drove as my main car for 15 or so years before I had to lay it up pending further restoration ( something I could not contemplate at the time having a young family ) has a lot of special meaning to me - I am currently 'collecting parts' for the restoration and it will probably keep me occupied in my retiral ( the car is still basicaly sound and runs , but needs a fair amount of work to return to the road ) - it will be passed on to my son or daughter once I have departed this world .
The Fintail I bought a couple of years ago also holds some sentimental value as it is the type of car I remember being the family car during my formative years . Since this particular car does not have the same importance to me as the Ponton , I am using it as a 'practice run' to perfect my various skills - I feel competent enough on things mechanical , having worked on so many models down the years , but am currently teaching myself welding , wood restoration and will need to work on my paint-spraying techniques at some point .
Neither of these cars will be offered for sale on completion , so money is not the object , nor is standing in a field with the flat-capped brigade kicking tyres : I will get my rewards from the pleasure in OWNING and DRIVING a distinctive and probably unique vehicle .
My W126 is just a daily driver and will get what maintenance/repairs it needs to keep it roadworthy , but that's about it .
Everyone , of course , has their own reasons for what they do .
